Ice Cream Truck Update

Tonight the ice cream truck is trolling my street playing a medley of Christmas tunes. Yes indeed: I heard Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells and White Christmas. Now I really want to know who's selecting the music. Still, it does make me wonder if I'm in a Bill Forsyth film. If you've not seen Comfort and Joy
(about rival ice cream vendors set, natually, in the middle of winter) you really need to. Speaking of Bill Forsyth, I've had a craving for his films of late so last night I watched Local Hero on VHS. Clothing aside, it has really held up well and is still a lovely film.

New Words: or, things to do when you're sick

Somehow today I found myself on WordSpy and have been clicking my way into whole new lexicological universes. Here are a few of my favourites. Nerdistan, Millionerd, Arachnerd, librarian chic, extreme ironing, Transwestite, Shoefiti, eco-sexual, blandiose, leadite, and, my favourite (because I have done this many times) fridge googling.

Site of the Month: Help me, Obi Wan Cannoli

This is a keeper. Check out Cuke Skywalker, Chew-Brocolli, Princess Lettuce, Darth Tater and C3 Peanuts in Store Wars.

"No cookies, only books"

Check out Cookie Monster and Mr. Bean at the library.

Happy Drinking Water Mo(nth) and the Number 2

I didn't realize that a lack of blog entries would be cause for alarm; all's well at the Cafe but thanks to faithful Cafe visitors for your concern. I also realize that I've been remiss in wishing you a Happy Drinking Water Month. I did not know that May was Drinking Water Month; I'll try to get my greeting cards out for next year. According to a press release I just found, I learned that this is the 22nd annual Drinking Water Month in Detroit. I also learned that this year's theme is “Only Tap Water Delivers" and that The American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) has a National Drinking Water Week (May 6-12). In Detroit, "The event runs throughout the month of May in Detroit because of popular demand. The additional time gives DWSD ample opportunity to make the public aware of the extraordinary processes that allow water to be readily available in the home." I raise a glass of tap water to you.

Today's Blog is also brought to you by the Number 2. Odd things have been happening in twos lately for me. Or, maybe I'm just noticing it. At any rate, here are a few things that have happened in twos lately. And a few other things that haven't happened in twos.
Number of times I have heard an ice cream truck playing Turkey in the Straw while sitting on my front porch: 2
Times yesterday that I saw a runaway dog named Buddy: 2 (one was a black lab and the other was some kind of short-legged snuffly snorty creature)
Flat tires I have had on my bike in the past 10 days: 2
Number of inner tubes purchased and installed on my bike: 2
Times wondered who picked Turkey in the Straw as a suitable song
to play while trolling neighbourhoods for ice cream seeking children: 2
Number of times I have had a dream where I got a new job and my new employer said "We'd like you to head the Vampire Slayer Studies Division" and I said "Really?? That is so cool!!! Are you serious??" and my new employer said, "No... no, I am not serious. Are you insane?!?": once, thankfully.
Number of actual colleagues who happened to be in my dream and laughed uncontrollably when I said "Really?? Are you serious??": 1
Number of attempts to get a photo with "Drinking Water Month" in the frame while in a moving car: 2
Number of photos with "Drinking Water Mo": 2
Number of photos with "Drinking Water Month": 0
Number of Dr. Pepper floats I have made in the past 24 hours: 2
The number of tires on my bike: 2
The number of brake pads needed per tire: 2
Number of new brake pads I needed for my bike: 4
Number of new brake pads I purchased for my bike: 2
Number of times I wondered "What was I thinking? Why did I only buy 2??": 12
Number of parents who, reading this, would think, "Poor Heidi. Math was never her strong point, was it?": 2
Number of roses I purchased before I knew I had a flat tire on my bike: 2 dozen
Number of blocks I walked in the rain holding 2 dozen roses and pushing my bike to a bike repair shop as it made a loud "thwipa-thwipa-thwipa" sound: 10.
Number of people who I saw stopping what they were doing to stare at me walking in the rain, holding 2 dozen roses and pushing a bike making a loud "thwipa-thwipa-thwipa" sound: 2
Times I thought, "What would Audrey Hepburn have done if she were walking in the rain, holding 2 dozen roses and pushing a bike making a loud "thwipa-thwipa-thwipa" sound?": 1
Times thought, "I think Audrey would have made the most of it and so should I. How often does one get a chance to walk in the rain with 2 dozen red roses on a nice summer day?": 1

Happy Campus Technology Day!

Today is our campus's First Annual Technology Day. As luck would have it, it is also the day when the campus is undergoing an inexplicable power blackout. I arrived at a dark workplace at 8, did all I could do without technology until 11 and then headed home to try and meet a writing deadline. At work this morning, the work I needed to do involved a book and a pen. I'm happy to report that both were fully functional in the power outage. We were all smiling and laughing at the irony of not having power to fuel our splendid technology on our inaugural Technology Day. In some ways, today's blackout is an apt reminder of all that technology is and all that it does for us. At the library, for example, there were few people if any who could do their work without a computer. Walking across campus to a (cancelled) meeting, I noticed how silent everything was without the various hums I'd never really noticed before. I heard 3 different kinds of birds chirping, leaves rustling in trees and squirrels sounding their squirrely yawp over the roofs of the world. I watched staff and students going for walks, talking to each other, pointing out the irises in bloom, reading books on benches outside, and generally enjoying this perfect early summer day. In honour of Technology Day, I hope you power off your computer, turn off your cellphone, and, like our pal Walt Whitman urges, lean and loafe at your ease, observe a spear of summer grass. My inner Luddite also urge you to celebrate this particular kind of technology. This video might also be appropriate on a day like today.

Library Cat Gets Posthumous Book Deal

From the American Library Association magazine: "Dewey Readmore Books, the live-in mascot of the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library who died at age 19 on November 29, 2006, has caught one last treasure for SPL Director Vicki Myron: Grand Central Publishing signed a $1.25-million book deal April 2 for Dewey’s life story. Myron will coauthor the biography, tentatively titled Dewey, a Small Town, a Library, and the World’s Most Beloved Cat." Dewey was put in the library's book return "one cold January night in 1988. When the staff found him the next morning, they decided to adopt him." Read about the much-loved Dewey here. See Dewey on the job here. And, if you're inspired by Dewey, make a donation to the SPCA here

Isabella Blow

Isabella Blow died this week and there's been some interesting coverage of her life. Last summer, Dale and I happened upon the most fascinating exhibit called "When Philip Met Isabella."
I found myself becoming fascinated with Isabella Blow whose life seemed so otherworldly. Reading about her was like reading a real-time Edith Wharton novel. "An Edith Wharton novel?" you might ask. Well, here are just a few examples: "Isabella - or Izzie, as she was known - said that her love of fashion came from her grandmother, Lady Vera Delves Broughton, a photographer, explorer and hunter. The family had lived at Doddington, a castle with 35,000 acres of land in Cheshire, since the 14th century, but it was sold to pay off her grandfather's gambling debts and, as a child, Isabella could see the castle only from her family's cottage on the estate." Or, "Blow entered into a liaison with a gondolier she met in Venice." A gondolier in Venice: that's good. I'm not sure even Edith Wharton could have come up with a Venetian gondolier.

The Boys' Bookshelf

An interesting venture coming out of England. A story in the Guardian notes: "The education secretary, Alan Johnson, who yesterday launched his campaign for the Labour party's deputy leadership, announced this morning that every state secondary school in England will be able to choose 20 of the titles in order to set up a dedicated "boys' bookshelf" in the library. The list, which was drawn up by librarians from the School Library Association, is dominated by high-octane adventure stories which it is expected will appeal to the 11-to-14 age group. It is during these years that boys who were enthusiastic readers at primary school tend to put down their books and forget to pick them up again."
Here's the list. It's an interesting list and I was pleased to see Endymion Spring by fellow former UofA-er Matthew Skelton.

Seen in Toronto

Check out the Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sunnydale High Library Playset. I think I'd probably add the Spike figure from Season Five with his Kiss the Librarian mug. But that's just me.

This week on my iPod: Unkle Bob and Travis

Hello Ken. How are you? This week I've got two new albums that I'm pretty excited about. The first is Unkle Bob's Sugar and Spite; I've been listening to it most of the week and can't seem to get it out of my iTunes playlist. The other is the much anticipated new one from Travis which I've just purchased. I can't remember the last time I put an album release date in my calendar. I've just started listening to it and think Unkle Bob's got some competition for iPod attention. Hurrah! New Travis!! Huzzah!

Great Moments in Canadian Espionage: Nano technology and the "unorthodox quarter"

You may remember that a few months ago U.S. Army contractors travelling in Canada filed "confidential espionage accounts" about some shifty looking Canadian coins. According to the Globe and Mail, "One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. 'Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket,' the contractor wrote." More troubling than the stealth coat seeking coins were the coins that were surreptitiously left in the cup holder of a rental car: "It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top." The worried contractors "described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP." As it turns out, they were just those innocent little poppy quarters. Still, as H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian notes: "I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it."

It's all very amusing and I expect a great many Canadians are chortling about this. Still, it does make me think about that very fine mockumentary "The Canadian Conspiracy" which was based on this premise:

Narrator: [voiceover] *Green* card.
[beat]
Narrator: Lorne *Greene*
[beat]
Narrator: Coincidence?

Lorne Greene: There's no connection whatsoever between Lorne Green and Green Card.
Anne Murray: Well, there *has* to be a connection between Lorne Green and the Green Card. Because all the people I know who have Green Cards know Lorne Greene.

Imagine the fuss if it had been a Lorne Green quarter. It would be Canadian Bacon all over again.

Photo Exhibit: How We Are

This is a neat capsule of the Tate's "How We Are: Photographing Britain" exhibit. View a slideshow of "six famous Britons'" favourite images.